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01 Apr 2015 6:03:52am

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"The astronomer Fred Hoyle claimed that the probability of life arising on earth (by purely natural means, without special divine aid) is less than the probability that a flight-worthy Boeing 747 should be assembled by a hurricane roaring through a junkyard. "

No, he didn't Alvin. You either made that up, or mindlessly repeated an error found on many creationist websites or you deliberately misquoted Hoyle to bolster your spiteful rhetoric.

Hoyle's actual words about cell development - with which no biologist disagrees - can be readily googled.

This is a trivial but telling example of the sort of disingenuous, hypocritical and deceitful debating behaviour which nauseates atheists.

Dawkins doesn't need to know any theology at all to dispose of Plantinga's arguments. Theism fails at the outset because there is no cogent evidence sufficient to support even its minimal claims.

The emperor has no clothes. No fashion expertise is required in order to make that point.

And as for Alvin's truly pathetic argument against naturalism based the unreliability of human senses - OF COURSE human senses are unreliable.

But the techniques of science - particularly the requirements of reproducibility and consistency - guard against this unreliability. Scientific instruments measure phenomena far more accurately than unaided human senses. And consensus, the general agreement of independent expert investigators, adds sufficient certainty to make materialism the most reliable guide to knowledge, even though it's not infallible.

Scientific materialism provides practical information about the world and this has led to the mitigation of disease, hunger, early death and superstitious cruelties. It has improved the quality of life for hundreds of millions of individuals.